Episode Transcript
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Well, please remain standing and let's
hear God's word. Now from Romans Chapter
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Four, Verses Nine through twelve.
Just previous to these verses, on Paul
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has told us about the blessing that
Abraham had received, namely the blessing of
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justification. And here he begins with
a question of verse nine. Is this
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blessing then, only for the circumcised
or also for the uncircumcised? We say
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that faith was counted to Abraham as
righteousness. How, then, was accounted
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to him? Was it before or
after he had been circumcised? It was
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not after, but before, before
he was circumcised. He received the sign
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of circumcision as a seal of the
righteousness that he had by faith while he
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was still uncircumcised. The purpose was
to make him the father of all who
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believe without being circumcised, so that
righteousness would be counted to them as well,
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and to make him the father of
the circumcised, who are not merely
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circumcised but who also walk in the
footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham
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had before he was circumcised. May
God bless his word to us. Please
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be seated. Of all the families
on the earth, of all the families
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on the Earth, God singled out
Abraham for special attention, special privilege,
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special blessing we're given to this particular
family. The book of Genesis tells us
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this story that recounts for us the
history of how this began. The first
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eleven chapters, which of course include
the creation of the world and the flood,
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also include long genealogies, which we
went through a few months back and
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we saw that these genealogies all led
us up to chapter twelve, this very
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specific chapter, and really on a
new beginning in a way, because it's
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there that God separates Abraham from these
genealogies and these things that had happened among
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his brothers, Nahor and Harn.
God separates Abraham. It's a geographical separation,
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at least on the surface. And
first of all, in Genesis Twelve,
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God says to Abraham, go from
your country and your kindred and your
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father's house to the land that I
will show you. Did you see?
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What I mean? Is this geographical
separation. God removes Abraham, he takes
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him away from, in particular,
his father's house, to the land that
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I will show you, not for
a very particular reason that God's going to
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do this, and he tells Abraham
what that is, namely it's that Abraham
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is going to become a father,
he is going to become established his own
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household, and in a way that
is different than just having more children and
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continuing on the family line. Know, this separation is of a quite a
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different magnitude. Do you remember the
promises that God gives to Abraham? There's
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actually a lot of them. I'm
if you. I I challenge you maybe
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to just write down a few and
then be surprised at how many more there
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are, even after the ones you
remember. God promises to Abraham to give
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him a land, in particular the
land of Canaan. He promises to make
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his name great, he promises to
make him a father of many and even
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to bless all the families of the
earth through him. He promises that this
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family will be so stablished and so
blessed that anyone who blesses Abraham will in
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turn be blessed and anyone who curses
Abraham will in turn be cursed. Immediately
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after these promises, as an aside, we see these things happening right away,
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even though Abraham hasn't quite reached the
land he finds himself in Egypt,
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and this all this kind of playing
out, and then that continues throughout the
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Bible. When people run a foul
of Israel, they get in trouble,
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they have bad things happen to them, curses of God fall upon them.
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A many of large sections that you
find in the prophets are devoted specifically to
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this point. You particular country who
did X to Israel, this is what's
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going to happen to you now.
And likewise, even foreign countries that don't
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often receive God's blessing are blessed because
of their connections with Abraham and his family.
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In addition to these promises, we
also have a promise that in Genesis
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fifteen one, that God would be
a loving, compassionate, protecting God to
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Abraham. In fifteen one, God
says, fear not, Abraham, I
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am your shield. Your reward shall
be very great. God is not distant
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from Abraham. He's not just a
power or a force. He has a
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particular relationship with Abraham, and it's
one of blessing. God, in all
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of his divinity and all of his
power, has decided to use those use
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himself to give gifts to this man
and all this is it comes through a
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particular child that is also promised to
Abraham. Through this child, these things
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would be accomplished. Now want you
to imagine for a moment that this had
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been you. Imagine that God came
to you and promised you these things.
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I'm going to give you a land, I'm going to make you a father,
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or mother, as the case may
be, of many nations. I
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am going to bless all of the
world through you, I'm going to protect
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you, I'm going to give you
rewards. Those who bless you. I
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will bless those who curse you.
I will curse God says this to you,
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would you believe him? It's not
necessarily guaranteed that you would. We
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have other examples in the Bible of
God promising to do things and people not
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believing him, of saying no,
I'm not interested, I don't care,
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I don't trust you, I don't
want you. Abraham does believe. However,
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the Bible explains to us that this
itself is a miracle of God,
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God working in him to draw him
to himself and bring a out this gift
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of faith that God gives. But
let's consider the other option. Imagine the
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same situation these promises given to you. You believe them. How would that
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affect your life? If you're Abraham, what would you tell your wife if
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these things were promised to you?
Oh, would you tell your kids as
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you were raising them? He Hey, the PAL, I've got some really
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good news for you. God is
a God to us. He is protecting
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us. You, Isaac, are
the promised son the God has given to
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us, and he can give him
examples of this. They can show him
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this. Thee it would talk of
these things. All the events that would
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happen in their lives would be explained
in this context. Well, we all
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know what happened to the Pharaoh in
Egypt because of what God had said.
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We all know because this situation or
that situation, because it's seen in this
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framework. Everything would change. You
would live your life in a very different
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way if you believed these promises.
For one, you would get up and
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go, God says, go,
separate yourself from your country, your kindred,
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your father's house. This is not
usually a safe thing to do,
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to go out on your own,
to be off by yourself, away from
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your established relationships and connections. But
Abraham trusts God and he goes. He
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changes his life because he believes these
promises. Now imagine that you belong to
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such a family. Maybe you are
born into a family that has been promised
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by God to receive all kinds of
wonderful, wonderful blessings. I think that
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if you were born into such a
family, you would feel honored, you
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would have a sense of privilege,
of responsibility, of blessing. This is
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true of even our regular families and
of just typical, run ofthemill families.
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If parents have a particular gift,
let's say they're a crafts people, often
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it's the children who will learn those
things, least to a certain extent.
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Maybe there are certain traditions in a
family that get passed down. Maybe the
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family's been blessed with a lot of
money. The parents feel the weight and
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responsibility good parents anyway, will feel
the weight and responsibility of teaching their children
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how to deal with that. What
the responsibilities are, the privileges that come
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with it, the things to be
on guard for. That's just little things
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in life that we all deal with. How imagine this kind of promise,
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this kind of blessing. Imagine the
kinds of the kind of holy pride that
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you would feel knowing that God himself
is your shield and your strength. Imagine
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the kind of confidence that you would
have moving about in the world, the
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kind of assurance that you would have
that you would be protected and cared for
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and loved. Well's this kind of
confidence and pride that the Jews have often
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felt because of their connection to Abraham, and that pride and honor and privilege
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is all very much centered around this
particular sign of circumcision, this sign which
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marked them out as the sons of
Abraham. But there's this question that Paul
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is bringing up, this really important
question. If Abraham is justified by faith,
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if faith only or I or if
justification comes only by faith, then
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is it only for those who are
circumcised? It's a natural question, isn't
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it? If God has singled out
this particular Er family and promised these particular
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blessings them, well, then verse
nine makes a lot of sense to ask.
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Is this blessing then only for the
circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?
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He answers. We say that faith
was counted to Abraham is righteousness. So
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that's the first point. How,
then, was it counted? Here's the
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historical question. Now, was it
before or after he had been circumcised?
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Well, Paul then answers that question
in the next sentence. It was not
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after, but before he was circumcised. Well, now we're on to something
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really interesting, and you see how
Paul is building in his case and he's
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going to ultimately reach what may be
an obvious point to you already, that
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these blessings that are given to Abraham, this status that he had before God,
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didn't come to Abraham by his works
and his good deeds. It came
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to him by faith. And since
it came to him by faith, this
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blessing is not just for the circumcised
but for all who believe. It's in
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that sense most of all that he
is the father. He received the sign
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of circumcision as a seal of the
righteousness that he had by faith while he
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was still UNCIRCUMIS sized you see what
Paul Sang there? He's saying that God,
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in this particular sign of circumcision,
placed this promise, this seal on
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him as a way to say,
the things that I have promised you are
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guarantee he received the sign of circumcision, this thing that pointed to these blessings
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that, through his seed, a
child would be born, that through his
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seed the blessings would be given.
That's what the sign pointed towards. It
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would require cutting off, it would
require purification, but it would happen.
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It would happen through his seed.
But it wasn't only a sign. His
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circumcision was also a seal of the
righteousness that he had by faith while he
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was still uncircumcised. You see what
he's saying then? Paul's not saying so
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Abraham went and circumcised himself and because
he did this thing he became, he
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sort of entered into this status.
No, he's saying that the circumcision was
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and, as US was, a
sign and a seal of the status he
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already had while he was still uncircumcised, before he was Abraham as we know
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him. The promise came to him
in that particular way, and not only
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and this wasn't haphazard. This was
purposefully intended by God, Paul says.
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The purpose was to make him the
father of all who believe without being circumcised,
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so that righteousness would be counted to
them as well, and to make
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him the father of the circumcised,
who aren't merely circumcised but who also walk
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in the footsteps of faith that our
father Abraham had before he was before he
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was circumcised. One helpful way to
understand what Paul saying here is to make
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a distinction about families and about this
family in particular that God has desired to
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bless his this family that God would
create through Abraham would very much be an
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earthly family. It would come through
earthly means. There would be people with
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specific names, names that you can
read in the Bible, people with particular
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characteristics, particular traits, but ultimately
this would be a heavenly family. Ultimately,
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God was after not just a people
that were sort of born and sharing
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the same genetic material. God was
interested in having a people that had the
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same sort of spiritually genetic material,
we might say people that had the Holy
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Spirit, in other words, people
that were sons and daughters of God,
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that belonged to him in a way
and that he desired one that would connect
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them in relationship that we would cry
Abba father, and not only no god
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as a lawgiver, but also by
His grace, God does this and creates
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this glorious heavenly family by his work. That's how God is glorified in it.
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He does this amazing thing. But
how is Abraham glorified in all of
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this as he did, glorified by
Abraham's work? No, Abraham receives all
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of these blessings and all of this
glory as a gift. It's received,
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it's not earned, Paul says not. Ask You, how do you receive
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a gift? If, right now, I bring a nice shiny package with
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a bow on it and and I
hand it to you, how do you
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receive it? Well, you would
probably use verbs like you take it,
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grab it, you hold it,
you receive it. Well, that's exactly
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what Abraham did with the pro promises
that were given to him, except because
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their promises and not a box with
paper, we use a different verb.
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We call it believing faith. We
grasp hold of the promises in our hearts.
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It's like a heart grasping, a
heart taking. We believe unbeliefs the
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opposite. Right, a promise is
given to you and you walk away from
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it because you don't believe. If
somebody says I'm going to give you a
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thousand dollars today and you believe it, you're going to take hold of it
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in your heart, you're going to
look forward to it. You're going to
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ask him when am I going to
get the money? If somebody says,
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however, I'm going to give you
a thousand dollars today, and you don't
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believe it, then it means nothing
to you. You didn't take hold of
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it, you don't grasp it,
you don't receive that promise. Well,
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that is the work that Abraham did. That's the obedience of faith. It
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wasn't a work in the sense that
we think of works usually. It was
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a work in the sense of receiving, of grasping, of holding, of
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taking a gift that was given.
That's what Abraham did, and he did
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it while he was uncircumcised, and
that's important because it says something about the
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nature of this particular blessed family.
It defined is what it means to be
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a part of that family, what
it means to walk in the footsteps of
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faith that our father Abraham had before
he was circumcised. There's this distinction between
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being in the family and really being
in the family. You've experienced this in
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your own families. I remember hearing
a story on the radio. I can't
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remember where I heard it, though, so apologies to the one who told
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it, but it was a story
that was a true story about this young
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man who grew up in somewhat of
a chaotic household and there was this tenant,
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so that was always kind of living
in their living room. But there
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were very strict rules on this tenant. He was not allowed to touch any
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of the food in the fridge and
his mother would actually put specific labels not
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for and I forget the man's name. WILL SAY MR F, not for
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Mr F, not for Mr F, and if there was milk that belonged
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to Mr F, then it had
Mr F's name on it was all very
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separated and regulated and the boy would
live in his household and kind of bump
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into him occasionally and step over him
and move around him. Well, was
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he tells this story and by the
time he gets to the end he reveals
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that Mr F, he finds out
as an adult, is his dad.
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And what happened was, back when
he was a kid, there was enough
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fair is gone. Got Really Mad
and she couldn't kick him out of the
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house, so she kind of did
it in the house and there he lived
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as Mr f. He wasn't a
member of the family, though technically they
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never got divorce, though technically he
was still his dad, he never even
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realized it until it was older.
Why? Because he wasn't a member of
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the family anymore. The opposite can
also happen, can't it? People that
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don't really belong can be brought in. Some of you here in this congregation
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have been adopted into your families.
You don't share the same genetic material as
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your mom and dad, and yet
they are your mom and dad. They
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belong to you and you belong to
them. We could give other examples of
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what it means to be long to
a family. The family of God has
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these kinds of distinctions as well.
There is belonging to the family and then
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there's really belonging to the family.
Paul makes this distinction specifically regarding to the
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Jews. Regarding the Jews in verse
twelve, when he says to make him
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the father of the circumcised, that
is, of the Jews who are not
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merely circumcised. You hear that word, he's saying there's a way in which
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you can sort of merely have this
but not really have it, because they're
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not walking in the footsteps of faith. Listen to some of the things that
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Paul says in Chapter Nine, in
nine, verse six, he says,
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but it is not as though the
word of God has failed, for not
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all who are descended from Israel belong
to Israel. Not who are all who
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are descended from Israel belong to Israel. These points are made elsewhere, even
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by our savior, Jesus, says
not all who take on his name actually
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belong to him. We saw this
and they we see this an example of
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Judas there with the twelve disciples belonging
to them, eating together, living together,
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working together, and yet ultimately not
together, ultimately not belonging. But
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the flip side of this is just
as there are Jews who aren't really Jews,
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there are gentiles who are Jews,
there are those who are uncircumcised,
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who rightly can be considered circumcised,
who can call Abraham my father, even
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when they have nothing genetically to do
with him. Why? Because of the
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way this family is formed, because
of the purpose that God intended for them,
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because of what he ultimately wanted.
There is a physical way this family
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is formed, a visible way this
family can be seen. The same as
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true in the Church today. There
are those who are technically members of the
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church who have been baptized, who
call themselves Christians, and whom we call
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Christians but are not actually regenerated on
the inside, don't actually belong because they
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haven't believed. They may say they
believe, they may put a show on
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outwardly, but inwardly they know.
Ultimately, God defines this family spiritually and
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though it has a visible aspect right
now, it's somewhat hidden and mixed,
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not only because of the goal but
also because of the means. Consider how
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this family is formed in history.
How did the child that was promised to
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Abraham, how is he born?
Miraculously, wasn't he? Do you remember
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how old Abraham was? Ninety nine
years old. His wife, like all
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so and baron her life during her
whole life. They were not expecting a
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child, they could not have a
child, but they had a child.
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This would continue to happen all the
way to the promised of promised children,
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Jesus himself. You remember how Jesus
was born Virgin, the spirit of God
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hovering over her and causing her to
conceive. This spiritual family was born literally
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by the Holy Spirit. And we, even though we are not a genetically
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connected to Jesus. Do you remember
what the Bible says. We are given
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who. We are given all who
believe that same Holy Spirit, God,
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our father, gives us himself.
He annoints us, he saves us,
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he fills us with his spirit,
he unites us together and creates a family
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by his spirit, and he pours
out all these blessings on us. Now,
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those who fail to understand this distinction
that Paul is making in these verses
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will find that their error is fatal. To assume that you belong to the
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family of God on the wrong assumptions, on the wrong basis, will ultimately
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kill you. It will bring you
under the wrath and curse of God,
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because it means that you are going
to God, you are calling yourself his
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child when you have no right to
be. It's presumptuous, it's arrogant to
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reject the promises of God, to
be given all of these blessings and say
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I don't want them, I'm going
to come to you on my own terms.
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I want what I want and in
the way that I want it.
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Do you think that God will bless
that person? He says he will not.
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But to the person who understands what
God is saying here, to those
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who do believe, we find ourselves
doing more than imagining what it would be
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long like to belong to the family
of Abraham, because the Bible says that
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we do belong to the family of
Abraham. We don't have to merely imagine
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what it might be like to be
a gentile and to have God's blessings pour
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out on us, all, received
and grasped and taken hold of by believing
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and by faith, because, as
Christians who believe, that's exactly what has
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happened. And even though we you
may not necessarily be one who is of
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the circumcised, or maybe you are
a Jew but believe in Jesus. In
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either case, than you have these
great joys and privileges of naming Abraham as
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your father. Those who believe are
indeed members of his family, and that
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will affect our lives, won't it
will change, and does change, the
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ways in which we act, the
ways in which we live, the kinds
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of confidence we have, the one
we go to when we need help and
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protection and shielding. We go to
the God of Abraham, to the God
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of our fathers, because he is
our God as well, received not by
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the virtue of our physical birth but
because of our spiritual birth. May God
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grant us this, this privilege,
this blessing, this honor. May he
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teach us to walk and with according
accordingly and with that sense of responsibility.
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Maybe walk according to faith, even
as Abraham walked, believing and trusting the
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promises of God. Let us pray.
